It’s Monday, February 9th, 2015…and here’s The Gouge!

First up, to borrow a phrase from Mark Twain, there’s lies, damned lies and then there’s Liberals; all of who, like Brian Williams, are damned liars.  To wit, Williams on Letterman back in 2013:

Note his “liberal” use of the collective “we”; as if, in both the theater and on the flight, he were something of greater consequence than mere excess baggage.

Now fast-forward to Williams’ deliberately deceptive, utterly inept and inapt apology:

He can’t even tell the truth while issuing a mea culpa for lying in the first place!

So, in honor of the NBC anchor’s patent prevarication…

…The Daily Gouge presents Brian Williams: History As I Remember It…Until Someone Contradicts Me With The Facts:

Even well-known Hollywood blockbusters aren’t safe from Williams’ revisionist revampments: 

But our personal favorite has to be…

Here’s the juice: Williams willingness to lie in pursuit of purely personal gain is simply in keeping with the prior misdeeds of the cream of Progressivism’s elite; including Hillary…

…Bill…

…and Barry:

And let’s not forget either the “Reverend” Al…

or the bald-faced lies of his race-hustling soul mate:

Specifically, Jackson claimed that he was on the balcony with King immediately after the latter had been shot, and that he had cradled the dying civil-rights leader in his arms as he took his final breaths. But in fact, at the moment King was shot, Jackson was actually in a nearby parking lot talking to a group of musicians. Kenneth Timmerman describes what happened next:

“When the shots rang out, he [Jackson] fled and hid behind the swimming pool area and reappeared 20-30 minutes later when the television cameras arrived on the scene.”

Are we the only one who finds it more than passing strange the MSM declines to provide a disclaimer detailing these deceptions any time the Dynamic Dividers appear on the screen?

Speaking of Liberal lies, writing at the WSJ, Laurence Silberman details…

The Dangerous Lie That ‘Bush Lied’

Some journalists still peddle this canard as if it were fact. This is defamatory and could end up hurting the country.

“…In any event, it is one thing to assert, then or now, that the Iraq war was ill-advised. It is quite another to make the horrendous charge that President Bush lied to or deceived the American people about the threat from Saddam.

I recently wrote to Ron Fournier protesting his accusation. His response, in an email, was to reiterate that “an objective reading of the events leads to only one conclusion: the administration . . . misinterpreted, distorted and in some cases lied about intelligence.” Although Mr. Fournier referred to “evidence” supporting his view, he did not cite any—and I do not believe there is any.

He did say correctly that “intelligence is never dispositive; it requires analysis and judgment, with the final call and responsibility resting with the president.” It is thus certainly possible to criticize President Bush for having believed what the CIA told him, although it seems to me that any president would have credited such confident assertions by the intelligence community. But to accuse the president of lying us into war must be seen as not only false, but as dangerously defamatory.

The charge is dangerous because it can take on the air of historical fact—with potentially dire consequences. I am reminded of a similarly baseless accusation that helped the Nazis come to power in Germany: that the German army had not really lost World War I, that the soldiers instead had been “stabbed in the back” by politicians.

Sometime in the future, perhaps long after most of us are gone, an American president may need to rely publicly on intelligence reports to support military action. It would be tragic if, at such a critical moment, the president’s credibility were undermined by memories of a false charge peddled by the likes of Ron Fournier.“

As NRO‘s Deroy Murdock noted back in October of 2014…

Bush Didn’t Lie

“…The notion that Operation Iraqi Freedom rested upon a giant foundation of even bigger lies severely damaged the reputations of the United States of America, Bush, the conservative movement, and the GOP — the latter two of which tended to support the Iraq invasion. (So did then-senators Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and John Kerry, and 108 other congressional Democrats at the time, although most later turned tail and pretended never to have voted to attack Iraq.)…”

More…or perhaps most importantly…

In a related item, courtesy of Patriot Update, David Goetsch wonders…

Is Obama just Out-of-Touch or is he Trying to Undermine America?

“Terrorists slaughter innocent, unarmed people in Paris. In response, the President of France calls for a show of unity, inviting all civilized nations of the world to participate in a march against terrorism. Many national leaders attend, but what does President Obama do? He stays home and watches a ballgame, not even deigning to send a top-level cabinet official to represent the United States. Several terrorist attacks in Europe and the U.S. are thwarted at the last minute by vigilant police work. How does President Obama respond? He refuses to acknowledge that the civilized nations of the world are at war with terrorists bent on our destruction. Terrorist attacks are linked to a group with ties to Yemen. How does President Obama respond? He announces the release of Muslim terrorists with ties to the same group in Yemen from Guantanamo prison.

Either Barack Obama is the most out-of-touch president to ever occupy the White House or he is purposefully doing things that are destructive to America and its future. These miscues—if that is what they are—are just the latest in a long line of questionable actions on the president’s part. Frankly, he had barely been sworn in when he started making decisions and taking actions that are bad for America and that threaten the future of our nation. Only two explanations are possible for explaining Barack Obama’s questionable and even destructive acts as president. Either he is the most out-of-touch, inept individual to ever serve as president or he is purposefully trying to undermine the nation he was elected to lead.

…In debating the question, Is President Obama just out-of-touch or is he purposefully trying to undermine America?, I would much rather be assigned the “purposeful argument.” Based on the evidence that is readily available, one can more easily make the case that the president knows what he is doing and is determined to do it regardless of what the American public thinks. On the other hand, if he is just the hapless, out-of-touch, inept chief executive he appears to be, we are still in trouble.“

As regular readers of our rantings readily recall, we’re firmly fixed on the former.

Which brings us to the latest by the WSJ‘s Mary Anastasia O’Grady, who voices the concern of many Conservatives by asking… 

So How’s That Cuba Deal Going?

Raúl Castro’s demands include reparations and no more U.S. asylum for doctors who defect.

“…The message from Havana is that if Mr. Obama wants a Cuba legacy it will have to be on Cuba’s terms. That means he will have to go down in history as the U.S. president who prolonged the longest-running military dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere.

Days before Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs Roberta Jacobson arrived in Havana on Jan. 21 for talks, the Cuban state newspaper Granma published the government’s list of “demands” for normalizing relations. One of them was that the U.S. recognize Cuban state-run community groups as nongovernmental organizations. It did not name any, but the notorious “committees to defend the revolution,” which exist to enforce repression by spying on the neighbors, come to mind. Also on the list published in Granma was a demand that the U.S. end its asylum program for Cuban doctors who escape while serving in third-world countries where they have been sent to work for slave wages.

A few days later, at a summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Belén, Costa Rica, the 83-year-old little brother of Fidel reiterated some of his other demands. He said that relations would not be normalized unless Washington unilaterally lifts the embargo, returns Guantanamo Bay to Cuba, ceases radio and television transmissions beamed into Cuba and makes reparations for the half-century-long embargo…”

As Mr. Anderson would say…

Since we’re on the subject of Progressive prevarication (as if Liberals articulate in any other language!), Gallup‘s Jim Clifton exposes…

The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment

“…If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job — if you are so hopelessly out of work that you’ve stopped looking over the past four weeks — the Department of Labor doesn’t count you as unemployed. That’s right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news — currently 5.6%. (Actually upticked to 5.7%) Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren’t throwing parties to toast “falling” unemployment.

There’s another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you’re an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 — maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn — you’re not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. Few Americans know this.

Yet another figure of importance that doesn’t get much press: those working part time but wanting full-time work. If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part time because it is all you can find — in other words, you are severely underemployed — the government doesn’t count you in the 5.6%. Few Americans know this.

There’s no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie...”

In other words, in keeping with the precepts of another disastrously unsuccessful Socialist experiment…

Next up, courtesy of the WSJ, Holman Jenkins predicts…

The Next McDonald’s Turnaround

Shake Shack’s IPO is good news for anybody whose business is burgers and fries.

McDonald’s in the mid-1990s thought its problem was the loss of baby-boomer customers because its food was not “relevant” to adults. The company spent millions and many months to develop its Arch Deluxe line of premium burgers, only to see it flop.

The real trouble turned out to be poorly structured incentives: Too many new stores were cannibalizing existing operators, promoting a spiral in food quality, cleanliness and maintenance. When McDonald’s rectified these problems, customers flooded back, including boomers with their children. The stock rose eightfold in the next decade.

If there’s a lesson for McDonald’s latest troubles, which got CEO Don Thompson fired this week, it’s that every organization keeps doing what works until it no longer works. McDonald’s problems are eminently fixable. The idea that the fast-food chain is doomed because fast food is passé, a favorite press theme, is silly.

The easiest part is to stop doing what no longer works. Partly to appease critics by wadding up the menu with “healthier” choices, partly to meet emerging competitors, McDonald’s allowed its menu to become unwieldy. This created cost, logistic and quality-control problems that naturally were felt by the 80% of customers who came for the traditional fries, burgers and McNuggets. (Including, Yours Truly, who still enjoys an occasional Filet ‘o Fish and/or Double Quarter-Pounder Royale!)

McD belatedly is doing what every chain from Burger King to Red Lobster to Olive Garden has been doing—focusing on its core mission and getting rid of extraneous menu items and costs. This will likely prove successful in boosting profits, then in boosting sales.

Which we KNOW will make our good buddy J.T. VERY McHappy!

Finally, on the Lighter Side…

Magoo

P.S.  While we enjoyed Mexico, and feel fabulously blessed by our exertions on behalf of Puebla’s Hananeel Baptist Church…

…it’s good to be home.  We only wish we could have brought our brothers and sister south of the border…

…back with us!  As Jesus said in Matthew 28: 19, 20. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

To which we can only add a hearty “Amen”!